TTAB to Applicants: Intent to Use? You’d Better Mean It.
If you plan to file a trademark application for alcohol on your “intent to use” the mark in commerce in the U.S., then you’d better have more than and a nice bottle design.
That’s the message from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) in a precedential opinion in Tequila Cuadra v. Botas Cuadra, Opposition No. 91282327 (May 8, 2025) (Precedential) (Stanley). The case involved two Cuadras—one making tequila, the other making boots—and a trademark application for CUADRA for alcoholic beverages filed under Section 1(b). The applicant claimed it had a bona fide intent to use the mark. The problem? It had nothing to back that up.
No business plan. No purchase orders. No regulatory filings. No communications with producers or distributors. Not even a tequila label pointing toward a U.S. launch. Just some promotional bottles that mostly served as props in boot ads, plus vague talk about maybe using commonly owned wineries—someday.
The Board wasn’t having it. Under U.S. trademark law, intent to use is not an abstract hope. It requires “objective evidence” of a real plan to bring the goods to market—in the United States, no less. Just owning a land and equipment that could be used to create your applied-for-good or other goods or having a pretty Instagram presence isn’t enough.
The TTAB noted that most of the applicant’s social media posts and bottle labels were in Spanish, not English. It seemed to suggest this undercut the idea that these efforts were directed at the U.S. market. We do not necessarily agree with such an implication. After all, the United States is a country where over 13% of households speak Spanish at home, over 41 million people speak it as a first language, and another 12 million are bilingual. There is little basis to discount Spanish language advertising. That said, the failures to meet the Board’s rules and get translations—that was a real own-goal against the Applicant and something that should have been done.
That said, even fluent Spanish doesn’t excuse the lack of actual evidence of intent. No emails, no deals, no regulatory preparations? No registration.
So, what is the takeaway? Filing on an intent-to-use basis is perfectly fine—but treat it like the serious legal commitment it is. Before you file, make sure you can show actual steps toward a U.S. launch. That can include product development, distribution planning, market research, or compliance efforts with U.S. regulations. Otherwise, you risk losing your application when someone else calls your bluff.
And if you have questions about intent-to-use filings or what counts as sufficient evidence, give us a call. We’d be happy to help you avoid being the next cautionary tale.